Safety Training Games
Ensuring that health and safety procedures are understood by all employees should be a primary concern for any company. However, many safety operations such as fire drills and life saving methods do not sink into the minds of workers because of outdated teaching methods that do nothing to grab employees' attention. What businesses need to do is use a set of safety training games that provide workers with all the relevant information but are also enjoyable.-
The Safety Game
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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a federal agency in charge of promoting and enforcing health and safety procedures. It has a variety of training games available for businesses to purchase including "The Safety Game," which OSHA describes as being similar to "Jeopardy" and promises to involve all of your employees. Divide your workforce into two groups who compete against one another answering questions related to safety. The trainer acts as quiz-master and enters the scores on the computer. Each topic is available for less than $100 and should help satiate your employees' competitive appetite as well as providing them with valuable safety information.
PERIL
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Another more engaging safety training game is PERIL (Project Earth Risk Identification Lifeline), a computer game from the Canadian Network of Toxicology Centres at the University of Guelph in Ontario. This is an interactive game that is designed to help people identify everyday health and safety risks. In PERIL, you assume the identities of aliens from a planet devoid of risk. Your knowledge of risks on planet Earth is then assessed by a quiz-master, with each participant beginning with a life expectancy of 70 years that gets reduced every time you take a risk, according to the promotional material for the game. The game basically tries to eliminate from our daily lives unnecessary risks that cause 90 percent of all injuries. Learning how to manage risk is a key method of reducing accidents in the workplace. Although the game was designed for children, its promotional material says, many adults find it entertaining as well.
Role-Playing Games
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You don't have to copy existing safety training games however. Use your imagination to entertain and educate your employees through role-playing games that use potential disaster scenarios. For example, try to create a situation where an employee has to think on her feet in order to escape a fire, or put employees in a situation where a co-worker has just had a heart attack and needs immediate assistance.
Whatever method you use, ensure that it is both fun and educational for your workers. Without adequate safety training procedures, your employees are being left open to a world of unnecessary risk.
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